I never went over word-for-word what John was told as I find it tiresome when authors spend too much time in exposition of things the audience is very familiar with. So assume that John was told all the highlights of her life.

This chapter is rated T for foul language.

Chapter 10: Leaving Sunnydale Behind

*****Where We Left Off*****

Buffy stared at her grandfather and looked at Dawn, who looked anxious at John's proclamation. She knew he wasn't really wrong, and he was rich and politically connected. Did she actually want to fight him when she did want Dawn safe?

"Okay," she said, shrugging. "I get what you're saying. Dawn, let's go upstairs to your room and see what warm clothes you have."

"I don't have much," she said.

"That's okay. I'll take you shopping," Beth assured her.

Dawn did like that idea and followed Buffy up to her room.

"Are you serious about this, Buffy?" she asked.

"I don't really think we have much of a choice, Dawn," Buffy told her, sitting on her bed. "Do you think we can fight Grandpa and win?"

Dawn winced. "Probably not," she said.

"Not to mention, I don't want to fight with him. He's been so amazing about everything," she said. "He didn't totally freak out when he learned about me."

"That's true," Dawn said. "But Montana is so far. And there's snow. It's cold!"

"There's horses, Dawn. You loved every bit of the ranch," Buffy reminded her.

"Yes, but it wasn't winter. I don't know how I'll handle the cold," Dawn said.

"Well, it won't be easy, but you'll manage," Buffy said, throwing her arm around her shoulder. "We're Duttons now. That makes us extra tough."

Dawn laughed. "Okay, that's true," she said. "At least we have cell phones, and I can call everyone now."

"That's right," Buffy replied. "We can speak every day. Willow has a phone and so does Xander. Anya is always at work, so you can call her and Giles there any time."

"All right," Dawn said. "Can you call everyone to come over, so I can say goodbye? I'll pack up stuff."

"I will. Mom's big suitcase is in the attic," Buffy said. "Let me go get it, and then I'll make the calls. You're not leaving, though, until tomorrow."

While they were doing that, John was downstairs talking to his children.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Kayce asked him.

"I am," John said. "I am very glad that we came here for Thanksgiving, but I don't know if I'll ever sleep much again."

"Sleeps overrated," Beth said.

"I didn't even believe in God," Jamie admitted. "Does this mean we have to believe in God now?"

"I'm not. I just believe in my kick ass niece," Beth said, sipping her coffee.

"Well, her school is over a hell dimension," Kayce said. "How can there be a hell and a heaven if there's no God?"

"I'm sure there is a God," John said. "Only He would see fit to bring our granddaughters into our lives just after we lost Lee, and they are trying to take our land. Buffy is a fighter, and she may be just what we need to make sure our ranch is never taken from the family."

Kayce laughed. "You have such a one-tracked mind, Dad," he told him.

"I just know what is best for the family and preserving our way of life," John said. "I want you to have the ranch and Tate. But if you don't want it, they can have it. Hell, it's a big ranch. You all can have it. Buffy's decided to go to law school. Jamie can get the power in Montana he wants to protect our ranch, and Buffy can do what he's always been doing."

"So you've got it all figured out, huh?" Kayce asked, sharing a smile with his brother.

"I do," John said. "Buffy died for her sister. She killed her lover when she was seventeen to save the world. That's who she is. I don't think anyone of us can say we have it in us to be exactly that selfless. Kayce, would you kill Monica to save the world? I would have let it burn if I had to make a choice like that over your mother."

"I couldn't do it," Kayce said. "I'd die for my siblings or Monica or Tate. I was a solider, but I couldn't kill someone I loved to close some hell portal. We'd all just die together."

"Okay, I'm going to have to trade my coffee for booze if we keep talking about this," Beth said. She admired the hell out of her niece, but she would never understand what drove Buffy. Dawn and Buffy needed another woman in their life, though, so Beth would find a way to be there for them.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," John told her and Kayce.

Buffy and Dawn came down to say goodbye to the pair as they had to catch their flight.

"Be safe, my kick-ass niece," Beth said, hugging her. "If I were you, I'd shag the vamp while you can 'cause life is too damn short."

"Beth!" John scolded while Kayce snickered, and Jamie frowned in disapproval.

"Ignore her," Jamie said.

"Don't worry, Uncle Jamie, I plan to," Buffy said.

"Or you plan on not kissing and telling," Beth replied with a grin.

"Goodbye, Aunt Beth," Buffy said, pushing her toward the door (gently).

Dawn was giggling as she hugged her aunt, whispering, "I totally agree," in her ear.

Beth was looking forward to having the teenager so close to her, which was odd because she rarely liked anyone.

*****Yellowstone*****

Rip was putting horses in the corral by the house when he saw the car pull up indicating that the family was home. He decided to go to the house and see how the Thanksgiving went. Of course, he wasn't fooling himself. Beth was the attraction and had been since he was fifteen. She was the only thing he had ever loved besides his mother and the ranch.

When she got out of the car, he smiled.

"Hey," he called out to her.

Beth turned from the front porch. "Hey, yourself," she said, returning his smile.

He quickly moved to her and pressed himself against her, happy when she didn't push him away. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him. "God, you won't believe my weekend," she told him. Then she let him kiss her, so he was prepared to believe anything she had to say. She had been burning hot and cold on him for so long that anytime she let him in at all, he counted himself very lucky.

Rip followed her inside and accepted the drink she poured for him and watched her down one for herself.

"Was it a good dinner?" he asked.

"My niece Buffy is the most incredible woman that I have ever met," Beth stated. "And you know me. I don't like other women ever."

Rip smiled. "Well, that's good. She's your family," he pointed out.

"No, Rip, I'm not kidding. She's incredible. A goddamn superhero with actual superpowers," Beth said.

Rip frowned. "What do you mean?" he said.

"I'm not drunk yet," Beth said. "You can ask Kayce, Jamie, or even my dad as they all saw the impossible the same as I did. First, we saw Buffy spar with Kayce, and she actually held her own. Then I found out she's something called a vampire slayer, and Sunnydale is on a hellmouth—a portal to a hell dimension."

"You're shitting me," Rip said, assuming she was joking.

"You think I could make up something this insane?" Beth said, knocking back her drink. "I saw a man crawl out of his fucking grave. Kayce stabbed it in the heart with a piece of wood, and it turned to fuckin' dust!"

"Seriously?" Rip asked, stunned.

"Every goddamn word is true. I don't like horror movies—you know that," Beth reminded him. "No fuckin' way I could make this insane shit up! My niece fights the fuckin' living dead. And demons. I watched her and her vampire sidekick named Spike kill two demons. I've tried to stay drunk since then, but then I got so pissed when she told me that in May she died for Dawn when some insane hellgod tried to sacrifice Dawn."

"Sacrifice? What do you mean?" Rip asked, his mind struggling to follow the outrageous conversation.

"Human sacrifice is a part of my nieces' insaneo word, Rip. Hellmouths, vampires, and demons weren't enough, so they had to throw in human sacrifice," Beth said, pouring herself another drink. "Buffy figured out that their blood was the same, so she jumped in her place—I forgot to mention that the hellgod trying to sacrifice Dawn had opened up some type of dimension that was going to destroy our world and all other dimensions. To close the portal that was opened by Dawn's blood, one of them had to jump into the portal. Buffy did. She died."

"God," Rip said, drinking his drink.

"That's not the craziest thing," Beth said, gesturing with her hands and drink.

"There's more?" Rip asked in disbelief.

"Her best friend Willow is a witch," Beth shared. "I'm talking real fucking magical powers. Her mentor, Rupert Giles, owns a magic store. Willow and her lover Tara—that was funny Buffy not bothering to tell Dad about the lesbian couple she and Dawn lived with."

Rip chuckled, picturing the straightlaced rancher's reaction to the realization.

"Anyway, Willow the witch, who I got to deck before I left," Beth shared with a smirk, "used her magical powers to raise Buffy from the dead after she had been dead several months. The morons, however, were too stupid to dig up her coffin. Buffy had to dig herself out of her own fucking grave. Can you believe that? They thought she was trapped in a hell dimension, and it never occurred to the four of them that she would wake up in her body in the ground."

"Unbelievable," Rip said, stunned.

"The worst thing is she said she was in heaven," Beth said. "Those dumb fucks pulled her out of a place of peace, not a hell and let her dig herself out of her grave. She was only alive about ten days before she first came here."

She sat down next to him on the sofa, and he put his arm around her.

"That's a lot to believe," he admitted.

"I know it is," Beth said. She looked up at him. "But I swear that it's all the truth. I couldn't begin to make something this insane up. Buffy has superstrength, kick-ass fighting skills, and has died twice already. Hell, once when she was seventeen, she had to kill the man she loved to save the world. That's the kind of thing she does, Rip. Save the fuckin' world like a goddamn real-life superhero. How the hell am I related to someone so fucking amazing?"

"Well, I'm not sure what to think about all that," Rip said after a few minutes. "However, I happen to think you're pretty damn amazing yourself."

Beth looked into his eyes for a long time and asked herself why was it that she stayed away from him all the time. He was the only man she had ever loved.

Naturally, she never gave him the words he wanted, but she kissed him, allowing herself to do what she often did when she came home. She got lost in the arms of the man she loved.

*****Several Days Later*****

Dawn could not believe how much her life had changed in such a short time. First, she had to say goodbye to everyone she loved in Sunnydale, including her friends at school in less than twenty-four hours as her grandfather had them leaving Sunday morning as the flight out of LAX was at noon.

Spike promised to come visit her while Tara and Willow promised to come during spring break. Xander said that he and Anya would come next summer.

It was going to be hard, but they promised to video call her at least once a week.

Saying goodbye to Giles was the hardest. He promised to join them for Christmas. Only the fact that she would see them for finals in a few weeks made saying goodbye easy. Eventually, Dawn knew that she would be less and less a part of their lives.

The Yellowstone Ranch was all consuming and covered in snow as she had imagined. The cold took Dawn's breath away, but she grinned to see the snow.

"I've never actually seen snow," she told her grandfather and Beth.

"Well, you'll see a lot of it here," John said with a chuckle.

"You'll grow to hate it," Beth said. "I do."

Dawn couldn't imagine that, especially when Beth took her Monday afternoon to Bozeman shopping for more clothes than she ever thought she could wear. However, she was much warmer when she arrived back on the ranch wearing a new outfit with the Montana sold coat instead of her flimsy California jacket.

Jamie made it back Monday night, having unenrolled her in having to in person to school and gotten her schoolwork set up for online. He also bought her a top-of-the-line Mac laptop—much to her glee.

"The Wi-Fi here is great as Dad put in a tower," he explained.

Jamie didn't waste time as Tuesday he had her signing papers that made her name Dawn Dutton since Buffy never got around to doing it.

When she called Buffy and told her, Buffy decided to go ahead and file her own papers there in California.

It was Thursday before she noticed that Beth and Rip had something going on as she had caught them kissing after dinner on the front porch.

"Oh, my God!" Dawn exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement.

Beth pulled away from her lover and glanced up at her niece. "Have you never seen two people kissing before?" she asked her.

"Well, yeah, of course, but I didn't know you and Rip were a couple," Dawn said, grinning. "That's awesome!"

"We've been a couple off and on since we were your age," she revealed.

Beth was sitting in his lap, and Rip rubbed her back. Then he said, "She keeps breaking my heart, and I keep letting her."

"How come?" Dawn asked.

"I'm a glutton for punishment," Rip said, smiling at Beth.

"I'm worth it," Beth said.

"That's true," Rip agreed, kissing her cheek.

"Aww!" Dawn exclaimed, shocked to see her aunt in such a girlie way as she was so tough. However, the revelation that she loved the same man basically her entire life was an eye opener. She fled the porch and went inside to call Buffy.

John saw her practically run toward the stairs, however, and stopped her. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked in concern.

"Yes, I just want to go call Buffy and tell her the good gossip," Dawn said, grinning.

"Well, how about you tell me the good gossip first," John told her.

"I just saw Beth on the porch making out with Rip," Dawn said, not hesitating to tell her grandfather, who she assumed knew.

"She's been toying with him a long time," John remarked. "He deserves better. He's a good man."

"Why aren't they married with kids by now?" Dawn wondered.

"The only thing Rip loves besides my daughter is this ranch. Next to me, no one loves the Yellowstone more than Rip. When he was a teenage, his stepfather murdered his mom and his brother. I found him in one of the stalls covered in blood as he had to kill his stepfather in self-defense. He was a bit younger than or close to your age when I hired him as a farmhand, and now he has taken your father's place as my foreman," John said. "He will never leave this place as he needs it to breathe, but Beth hates the ranch that killed her mother."

"Wow," Dawn said, feeling incredibly sad. "That's so sad."

John nodded. "But it has a happy ending," John assured her. "Beth has never loved any man but Rip."

"How do you know that?" Dawn asked.

"Because she's never brought a man home to meet me," John said. "That's how I know. It's only ever been Rip as she's every bit as loyal as he is. She as mean as a rattlesnake—make no mistake, Dawn. Beth is a complicated woman, but she has succeeded in a man's world in her career. Between her and your sister, you couldn't ask for better female role models. They will teach you how to be strong."

Dawn smiled. "I'm surprised that you are sharing so much with me, Grandpa," she said.

"I want you to know your family, Dawn," he said. "We've missed a lot of years with you, but that doesn't mean that we can't be close now."

Dawn hugged her grandfather. "I love you, Grandpa," she told him.

John felt joy at her words and returned the sentiment. "I love you, too. You've made this old man very happy. I hope you'll be happy here," he said.

"I already am," she assured him. Then she said goodnight and went upstairs to call her sister.

There was no way she could keep all the good gossip to herself!

*****Chapter End******

If you don't watch Yellowstone, now you know more about Rip Wheeler, who is the one who does all the killing for John on the show and throws the bodies in a canyon on the border of Montana and Wyoming. John takes advantage of his loyalty because the broken and abused teenage boy was lost, and John taught him how to be a man. He loves John and is loyal to him utterly as you can imagine he would be after all that and twenty years or so have gone by.